The urgency to abandon village politics and reject Robert Abela in the polls is even greater with the fact that Germany has left the building. We are on our own. Previously, we could have taken the risk of upholding Malta’s rent-seeking regime and village politics given the fact that we could be shielded from the troubles of the world by the great prowess of the EU. Well, we are no longer in that situation, today. We are by ourselves in many aspects and we can not depend on our greater neighbours for our security and economic well-being, and therefore we literally can not afford a Labour government led by Robert Abela.
Yesterday’s call by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Putin asking him for a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution is Sholz’s latest act in appeasing Putin after constantly showing a great reluctance to impose sanctions on Russia and disengage from it economically until he was pressured to do so by the US. Germany doesn’t perceive the Russian war on Ukraine as a geo-political push in Europe for the Russification of Eastern Europe (that’s how Putin sees it), and a direct threat to our world order and our democracy. The German government is taking a short-sighted stand by pursuing exclusively its own interests ignoring the great political ramifications which are at stake. The Germans themselves admit that they don’t want to find immediate alternatives to Russian gas as this would bring them into a recession. Germany is paying around €4.5 million per hour to Russia for gas and practically serving as one of the biggest and major sources of revenue for the Kremlin. So, basically, Putin affords to massacre Ukrainians and threaten the world with nuclear destruction because the Germans don’t want to get cold for a couple of months. This would have been hilarious if it wasn’t tragic and I have yet to see such a great sense of collective selfishness and absolute egoism in contemporary history.
The situation with gas prices and supplies in Europe are critical right now and prices may even go higher as supply issues continue. The problem with Europe is also that it doesn’t have a lot of storage space for gas. We could solve many of our energy problems if we opt for nuclear power, and also use gas and oil supplies from the North Sea, however, as of now there hasn’t been any large-scale strategic manoeuvres coordinated by Germany and other nations to strategically solve Europe’s energy problem. Germany isn’t providing leadership on the energy issue. It’s securing its own interests by going soft on Putin to avoid clashing with him for the sake of its national security. The European nations which are taking the strongest stance against Russia are Poland and the Baltic states because they know very well the threat of losing their democracy and their freedoms if Putin keeps having his way. Germany’s selfish behaviour is very seriously compromising the notion of European unity because if Putin keeps getting his way, Eastern Europeans may stop believing that Western Europe has their back. In fact, the political discourse of the EU Parliament President, Roberta Metsola about energy, security and European freedoms is filling the void of what should be strong and respectable European discourse from Europe’s strongest nation.
The Germans were the strongest upholders of European unity when it came to punishing Greece for its fiscal misbehaviour. Germany didn’t want to compromise with the leftist Greek government over its debt payments. Maybe, if Greece had a couple of nuclear weapons it could have pointed them at Germany and Germany would have given back a more compromising response. The irony today is that Germany is even more friendly to Putin than it was to the Greek left-wing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
Germany is not the upholder of European freedom and values – it is the upholder of German freedom and values. Its position in Europe is strictly to secure its interests. Fine. We understand this. Germans don’t want to engage in preserving Europe’s democratic order from a nuclear tyrant, they want to stay warm and have enough money for beer and sausages. Ok, we get it. The point now is to do something about it. Germany by proxy also controls the European Commission which is led by the Angela Merkel’s reject, Ursula von der Leyen, who previously occupied the mundane position of German Defence Minister. It is an even bigger irony that von der Leyen is part of the German political league which got Europe in today’s crisis: no energy security and literally no security. By now, with the actions of Scholz, it should be obvious to us that these people are not going to change and they are going to keep doing the same thing over and over again. As soon as war fatigue kicks in the German political league which as of now ran the show in the EU will abandon all European values and sit down for a deal with Putin. We should avoid this scenario completely. We should absolutely not make sure that Ukraine becomes another Syria and Putin is handed over a victory in Europe just right at our doorstep. The Germans have made it explicit that they do not want to be the ones who will lead us out of this predicament. We should take action. I’m sure that my thoughts are shared by many other politicians, diplomats and bureaucrats outside Germany and most probably, already, allegiances and politics are changing in this regard as I write.
Meanwhile, Malta will be found on the other end of the stick while Europe re-calibrates itself. Malta ‘s energy system is deeply intertwined with the Chinese government given that Shanghai Electric (owned b the Chinese government) owns 49% of Enemalta and Malta’s heavy-fuel oil power station. Undoubtedly we need to secure this asset and take it back. The same thing we should do with the Electrogas power station which is mired in corruption, fraud and murder and which Socar also has a stake in. By now, these issues should no longer be restricted to Miriam Dalli’s and Robert Abela’s village politics. These rent-seekers have absolutely no conception of the risks involved and their gravity. Now, the situation is completely beyond these rent-seekers, and the greatest risk in our country is that these people will be responsible for our security and energy.
Politics has now become existential. We have to start taking everything seriously and we can do so by start voting for the adults who uphold European values as opposed to selfish interests and rent-seeking.
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